You Fulfill Me

Among the attendants at Jesus baptism were two very important VIPs—that’s right, very important Very Important Persons.

God His (our) Father—a.k.a. YWYH and the Holy Spirit.

And He (Abba) had something to say.

Check out the account from the Passion Translation:

One day Jesus came to be baptized along with all the others. As he was consumed with the spirit of prayer, the heavenly realm ripped open above him and the Holy Spirit descended from heaven in the visible, tangible form of a dove and landed on him. Then God’s audible voice was heard, saying, “My Son, you are my beloved one. Through you I am fulfilled.” - Luke 3:21-22 TPT

This may be the only time (at least I can’t think of another off the top of my head) where Father, Son and Holy Spirit all show up in a form that can be perceived by all present. Of course, they are always together in all of Jesus life, but right here by the side of the muddy Jordan river the Father is heard, the Spirit is seen, and Jesus is the center of attention.

We don’t get this kind of manifestation at Christ triumphal entry.

Not at any of His miracles.

Not for the sermon on the mount.

Not even at His birth, crucifixion, or resurrection, though They were all completely involved in each.

There’s something really significant going on at the baptism of Jesus Christ.

Mark and John don’t even mention Jesus birth—Christmas—but all four gospel writers include a description of Jesus baptism. This is the launching of Jesus ministry. This is the day the age old plan, that was set in motion before the foundations of the earth were set in place by the Word of God, is going into it’s final phase. It’s a big deal!

But what really caught my eye was this phrase used by Abba. Most of us are familiar with the usual rendition, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” And if you are anything like me, you long to have those words spoken over your life too. You long to hear the Father say He is pleased with you and your life.

But the way Brian Simmons (translator of the Passion Translation quoted above) renders it, the Father tells His beloved Son, “I am fulfilled through you.”

Jesus tells us that He came to fulfill the law that was crushing us.

Here we see that Jesus—the God man—fulfills the Father. The triune inseparable, incomparable God is completed by this flesh and blood man, Jesus.

And I guess that is how you would have to define trinity in the first place. If any one of them was not, God would be incomplete.

By the same token, in Jesus high priestly prayer, He used His words—same kind of words that set Jupiter in orbit of our sun—to ask the Father to allow us into that same relationship.

I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. - John 17:20-23 NASB

Could it be that we may someday here the same words from the Father, “you fulfill Me?”

So many Christians live lives of condemnation and feeling like they can never please God, or live up to His expectations. But what Jesus did for us, on the cross, gives us His nature, and His ability to please God, and to fulfill Him.

I heard Praying Medic say in a podcast yesterday that he finally heard to work from the place of rest, when he figured out that God was pleased with him, and even delighted in him. That’s when the spirit of striving died in him, and it set him free to minister in confidence.

Sorry - I’m rambling a bit today, and now I have to get going.

Blessings on all of you today.

Thanks for coming by.

Ben

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About Ben

Ben is an author, speaker, teacher, blogger, storyteller, IT geek, and student of the Bible. His heart is to see men and women reconciled to the Father and walking in all He has created for them.
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